Love, Honor and Obey - Chapter 7
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement.
Chapter warnings: None
The following morning found Sam learning to build the local equivalent of a radio with Lilia. The technology class had been split into pairs, and Lilia had at once assigned herself to Sam, which the older woman found rather touching.
After the class, when Lilia stayed with Sam to take a walk around the temple gardens, Sam noticed an unusual spring in the young Yantaran's step.
'You seem very cheerful today.' Sam commented.
'Oh. Do I? I expect it's just the weather.' Lilia said in a rush.
Sam squinted sceptically at the sky. The weather had been constant sunshine and soft breezes the entire time she had been on Yantar.
'Maybe, but I suspect there's something else.' Sam teased. 'Go on, you can tell me.'
Lilia stopped walking, and looked a little scared. 'You'll think I'm a monster.'
Sam frowned. 'I seriously doubt that. What is it?'
'My betrothed has fallen ill. Not seriously ill, he will recover, but my wedding will be delayed as a result.'
Understanding bloomed in Sam's expression. 'Well, it's only natural for you to be nervous about marrying someone you don't know.'
'No, it's not. What is natural is for a girl to be excited to do her duty, marry a boy, and bring forth as many babies as she is able.'
Sam felt a little sick. 'Lilia … you know I come from another planet, with customs quite different from those here on Yantar?'
Lilia nodded.
'Well, where I come from, girls don't have to get married at all, let alone to someone they've never met, against their will. What I'm trying to say is, if you don't want to get married like this, I understand that. I'd feel the same, in your position.'
Lilia looked scandalised. 'But I can't feel like that. It's against everything we are taught to believe.'
'In my experience what you know you should feel and what you feel in your heart can be two very separate things.'
'My teachers say that a wife's heart always learns to love the husband she is given, in time.'
'I don't think that's true. Love doesn't always work that way. And you certainly can't choose who you fall in love with. Trust me, I know.'
'How do you know?'
Sam sighed, looking at the young girl in indecision, before finding a seat on a nearby bench and gesturing for Lilia to join her.
'I know because I fell in love with someone I'm not allowed to be with.'
Lilia's mouth opened in a little 'o' of surprise. 'You mean because you have to marry Colonel O'Neill, instead of the person you love?'
Sam frowned, not sure how, or even if, to answer that. 'That's … not exactly what I mean, but it doesn't matter. The point is, I didn't choose to fall in love with this person, and my life would be a lot easier if I wasn't in love with him. But I don't get to decide who I love. Do you understand?'
Lilia nodded. 'I do.'
Sam was about to speak again, when Lilia startled her by continuing. 'I too am in love with someone I can never be with.'
Suddenly it all made sense. 'Oh Lilia. You've fallen in love with someone but you're being forced to marry someone else.'
'Yes.'
'But, I thought you were allowed to choose your own husband, if you wanted. Why can't you marry the boy you love?'
Lilia started to cry. 'I just can't.' She jumped up and ran away in the direction of the temple, leaving Sam to stare after, feeling disturbed.
That evening Sam described her encounter with Lilia to the colonel while they waited for Leyna's arrival.
'That sucks.' Jack agreed.
'I don't know what to do about it. I get the feeling there's more to it than Lilia is telling me, and I'm worried if I appeal to Leyna about it I'll get Lilia in trouble.'
'Carter, there's nothing you can do about it. Need I remind you that if we had any influence over this planet's marriage rules we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place?'
'I can't just do nothing. What they're doing to this girl is wrong. You should meet her, sir, she reminds me so much of Cassie.'
'But she's not Cassie. Don't go getting emotionally involved when there's not a damn thing we can do to help her.'
Sam glared at him, refusing to believe it.
'Don't look at me like that. You know I'd help if I could.'
'You're not the one who has to live in here with these kids. They're all so young.'
'I know.'
Sam kicked her feet back against the wall, frustrated.
'Hey, Carter?' Jack said suddenly.
'Yes sir?'
'Well, firstly, didn't we agree you'd drop the sir?'
'Sorry. But you did call me Carter.' She pointed out.
Jack waved his hands. 'Fine, sorry, won't happen again. But I was thinking … everyone here's married, right? I mean, the whole society is just couples, one man one woman?'
'For the most part. Occasionally the numbers of each gender become disparate enough that a man or woman has to take more than one wife or husband.'
'Ok. But, where are all the … you know, homosexuals?'
'Well, I'm assuming it would be a taboo, given their reproductive problems and marriage laws. I expect no one here ever admits to being homosexual.'
Jack just stared at her, eyebrows raised. Suddenly Sam saw what he was trying to say.
'You think Lilia is a lesbian?'
'Could be. It would explain her reluctance to get married.'
'No, she said the reason she didn't want to get married is that she's in love with another boy. One she couldn't be with.'
'Did she say boy? Or did she say person?'
Sam thought back. 'I'm not sure.'
Jack cocked his head. 'Just a theory.'
'Yeah. Even if it's not true of Lilia, it must make a lot of people very unhappy.'
Leyna eventually appeared and led them, to Sam's surprise and horror, to the temple kitchens. They were empty at this hour, and Leyna had set out ingredients and cooking equipment clearly intended for a dinner for two.
'Our previous session was about sharing the past. This session, is about sharing the present. Tomorrow's session will be about sharing the future.' Leyna said.
'Today's session is one of the most enjoyable. To begin with, you will cook a meal together with the food I have laid out for you, and then eat together as you would do in your home as husband and wife.'
'To 'begin with'? What comes after?' Jack asked.
'That will depend on how the meal goes. It will be an activity designed to help you complete the session to my satisfaction.' Leyna said.
She gestured for them to begin. 'Unless you require instruction in how to cook the meal, I will remain seated by the door, as an observer only.'
Sam was about to accept the offer of instruction, but Jack cut in. 'I'm sure we can figure it out, right Sam?' She looked at him in alarm, but Leyna retreated to the chair by the door.
'You know I can't cook, right?' Sam muttered to Jack as he began sorting through the meat and vegetables.
'Oh I am well aware, Major. I'm head chef, your job is to follow orders.'
Sam grinned. 'Yes sir.'
Considering they were unfamiliar with pretty much all of the ingredients provided, Sam thought Jack did an astounding job with the meal. Within half an hour, he had the kitchen full of a delicious scent of stir-fried meat and vegetables. He kept her looking busy too, muttering instructions to her in an undertone, hoping to keep the one-sided nature of the cooking from Leyna's notice.
Sam set the small table in the corner of the kitchen, and as an afterthought added two candles, lighting them from the stove. When Jack raised his eyebrows at that gesture, she jerked her head in Leyna's direction, mouthing 'for her benefit'.
They sat down to eat, and over dinner Jack told Sam how the trade negotiations were going. Daniel had been lamenting Sam's absence – it had become apparent that the Yantarans possessed some quite interesting technology, but without Sam there Daniel was having a hard time discerning precisely what would be most valuable to Earth.
The meal went a long way towards easing Sam's mind about the marriage rites as a whole. When Jack had suggested that they would be best approaching the situation as friends, she had harboured some serious doubts that they could pull it off, certain that either their military ranks would make their interactions stilted and awkward, or that their mutual but unacknowledged feelings for each other would make the whole thing blow up in their faces. Over dinner though, talking to Jack felt like talking to a best friend. It was easy, and fun.
When they had finished eating, Leyna came over with a warm smile. 'If you are finished with your meal, I would like you to take a walk through the temple gardens together.'
'How are we doing so far?' Jack asked.
'You are doing very well, I am pleased. Come.'
They followed Leyna out to the gardens. The older woman wrapped a shawl around Sam's shoulders for warmth, then took Sam's hand and firmly tucked it into the crook of Jack's arm. Sam was very glad that the evening darkness hid her blushing cheeks. 'Please, take a walk through the gardens. I will wait here for you, but don't come back too soon.'
Jack caught Sam's eye and shrugged, and they started their stroll away from Leyna.
'So, this rite is basically the date night, right?' Jack said after a while of walking in silence.
'Dinner and a moonlit walk? Yeah, that sounds about right.' Sam agreed.
'You don't think …' Jack trailed off.
Sam looked up at him, eyebrow raised.
'Well, I mean, what typically happens at the end of a date?'
Sam's pulse quickened and her hand gripped Jack's arm a little tighter. 'You don't think she's going to want us to … kiss goodnight?'
'I don't know.'
'This isn't Earth, though. Just because that's how dates end in our culture, it doesn't mean that's what will be expected of us here.'
Jack sighed. Sam looked at him, trying to figure out what he was thinking.
'S – Jack?' She winced at the trip over the automatic 'Sir'.
'Look, Carter, to be honest I'm a bit worried about how far they're going to make us go.'
Sam stopped walking – they were well out of Leyna's sight by now – and turned to look him in the eye.
'Yeah, me too. There are seven rites, the eighth day being the actual marriage, which means we have five more rites to go. If day two is date night …'
'Then this could get a lot more awkward before we reach the finish line.'
Sam nodded and looked down at her sandal-clad feet. 'What do we do?'
Jack's hand landed softly on her shoulder, and he pulled her back into his side as they resumed walking. 'The situation hasn't changed. The only way to get you out of here is to go through with this. We're too far from the gate for a safe escape or rescue, and the trade negotiations are going well. If we follow this through to the end, we all go home, with a new ally and trade partner to boot.'
'So we may end up having to throw the air force regulations in the fire, and there's nothing we can do about it.' Sam said softly.
'Sam, you know I won't do anything you're not a hundred percent comfortable with, right?'
'I know.'
'I'm not Jonas Hansen.'
'I know.'
'It's just … we may have to cross some lines. Which means we need to start working our way up to being okay with that.'
'It's not necessarily the crossing of lines that I'm going to have a problem with.' Sam admitted.
'What do you mean?'
'What I'm worried about is what happens afterwards, when we go home.'
'Hammond won't court martial us for this, we don't have any choice.'
Sam shook her head. 'I know that, but what I'm worried about is us.' She stopped walking again and looked at him.
'After we cross all those lines, how do we go back to being just …' she waved her hands in the air between them.
Jack caught her hands and stepped closer to her, invading her personal space. 'We cross that bridge when we come to it. I can't promise you what things are going to be like between us when we get back, we can't know that until we finish this. But I can promise you I'll do everything I can to protect your career.'
Sam let out a deep breath. 'I appreciate that.'
She shivered in the chill air, and Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulders. 'Come on, let's get this one over with.'
They finished the walk in silence. As they rounded the last corner and came back in sight of Leyna, Sam felt Jack's arm tense around her shoulders, as though he was fighting the urge to move it now that someone could see them. It felt very peculiar to go from having to hide any outward signs of their feelings, to having to display them openly.
'Welcome back, Colonel, Samantha. Colonel, please bid Samantha goodnight with a kiss, and then you may leave for the evening.'
Jack's hand gripped Sam's shoulder more tightly for a moment before he moved his arm and turned to face her. Sam met his eyes with a nervous resolve. Here we go.
He stepped closer to her, and his hands drifted up to cup her face. His eyes never left hers, and she could tell he was looking for any sign of hesitation on her part, constantly checking that what he was doing was ok. She tried to keep her own gaze calm and certain, and let her hands wander up to his waist.
Jack's hands tilted her face upwards, and his own face bent down to meet hers. An inch of space was left between them as he breathed: 'Ready?'
She nodded.
His lips met hers, soft and gentle. For the first moment she just let him kiss her, breathless, and then her hands tightened around his waist, she leant forward into him, and kissed back, still softly but with a passion that surprised her. Jack made a sound low in his throat and after a long, glorious moment of indulgence pulled back, resting his forehead against hers. They breathed the same air for a few heartbeats before Jack pulled away completely.
Leyna was beaming.
'Well done. You should know I will be making a very favourable report on your progress to Vaya Maroa in the morning.'
'Great.' Jack muttered.
'Come Colonel, I will show you out.'
Jack cast a last, complicated look back in Sam's direction, before following their host/captor/teacher to the door.
Sam closed her eyes, and tried not to cry.
